Daily Worship

Re-Imagining Church

Image credit: J Cathcart

Remember Why

Hands up who has ever walked into a room and had to walk back out again in order to remember why you entered it in the first place? It’s strange how when we are distracted or forget our purpose, we often have to physically return to the place where we first realised that purpose in order to recall it. There in the place of need, the place of inspiration, the place of encounter, we remember. Along the way, we all too often forget.

The journey of faith can be a bit like that. We start out with a strong sense of purpose, but along the way we often lose it, distracted by the busyness of life or of being ‘church’. What would it take to re-start our imaginations; re-kindle our sense of purpose? Where in our journey does epiphany happen? When, like for the Wisemen or Magi searching for Jesus, does the star stop?

Lord, we have been travelling a while, my fellow Magi and I
We thought we knew what to expect, but the journey has been stranger than we imagined.
Sometimes we have had to stop and remember,
Remember why we follow the star.
Remember our excitement when we first saw it,
when we realised that what we had read of was real.
Remember how we wanted, needed, to see it for ourselves; to see him for ourselves. And now the star has stopped. We are here.
I feel it again - that overwhelming joy - and I know
the journey is just beginning.

by Rhona Cathcart, Parish Minister, Inverurie West Parish Church

Matthew 2: 10

10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.